How Do Procter & Gamble’s Revenues And Key Metrics Compare With Its Close Competitor Unilever?

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Unilever (NYSE: UL) are global majors in the consumer products segment, and have similar business models. Both these companies manufacture and sell products across multiple segments like health care, grooming, fabric care, home care, and family care.

In this dashboard, Procter & Gamble (P&G) vs Unilever: How Have Revenues For Each Changed Over Recent Years?, we analyze how the businesses of P&G and Unilever have evolved from 2011 to 2018.

A] What has the trend in Total Revenues been like, for the two companies since 2011?

• Unilever and P&G both have seen an overall drop in revenue from 2011-2018, with a 1% average annual drop in revenue for Unilever and around 0.75% for P&G.
• This has been due to a lot of internal reshuffling, with Unilever scaling down on its Food & Refreshment business and instead focusing more on Personal Care, which is evident from the change in revenue share for these 2 segments.
• Similarly, P&G has been scaling back on grooming products, while increasing focus equally on all other segments of revenue.

• Overall change in revenue for both companies has been broadly similar, with both experiencing drops in revenue between 2013 and 2016. (NOTE: P&G announces Q4 results in June, while Unilever does so in December).
• This drop was on account of a demand slowdown in emerging markets.
• However, things have gotten better, and both companies have stabilized since.

B] How Does P&G’s Fabric & Home Care division (their largest), compare with that of Unilever’s?

• Revenue from P&G’s Fabric and Home Care segment has remained roughly flat, from $21.8 billion in 2011 to $21.4 billion in 2018.
• Unilever’s Fabric and Home Care Segment has seen a little growth over the same period, from $11.4 billion in 2011 to $12 billion in 2018.
• This is laregly due to Unilever’s reduced focus on its Food & Refreshments segments, increasing focus toward Home Care and Personal Care.

C] How does Unilever’s Personal Care segment (their largest as of 2018), compare to that of P&G’s?

• Unilever’s personal care segment has seen growth from $21.5 billion in 2011 to $24.4 billion in 2018, while accounting for a drop to  $20.9 billion in 2014.
• Unilever’s personal care business is the second largest in the world, after L’Oreal, and Unilever has increased focus in this segment.
• P&G on the other hand has seen revenue from personal products fall from $29.6 billion in 2011 to $27.4 billion in 2018.
• While Unilever’s personal care segment has grown steadily since the drop in 2014, P&G’s personal care revenue still hovers below 2015 levels.

D] How have number of Employees and Revenue per Employee trended for both companies?

• Unilever’s products are sold in almost 200 countries, while P&G has a presence in roughly about 175 countries.
• Even then Unilever, as of 2018, has roughly 1.7x the number of employees that P&G has.
• P&G therefore boasts a much higher revenue per employee of about $726k per employee, while for Unilever it is about half, standing at $382k per employee.
• However, both companies are seeing steady growth in this metric.